Netanyahu calls to ‘deepen’ Israeli settlements as US harshens policy

Israel should fight terrorism with more legal construction in Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as the US decided to stop joint scientific research with Israel in the West Bank.

At the same time, the prime minister vowed that Israel will crackdown on illegal outposts.

“I say all the time, for years, that the appropriate response to terror is to fight terrorists and at the same time deepen our roots in our roots in our land,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a cabinet meeting. “Indeed, we are killing a record number of terrorists and we are building widely in our land according to authorized building plans.”

Netanyahu also pointed out that, under his leadership, Israel built many new homes over the Green Line despite international condemnation and calls to withdraw from territory.

The US banned West Bank cooperation

The prime minister’s remarks came as the Biden administration reversed the policy of its predecessor, banning US-Israel cooperation on science and technology in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank.

Washington’s decision came to light a week after Israel’s government advanced the construction of over 4,500 new homes in Judea and Samaria.

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo declared that Washington does not view Israeli settlements as illegal per se. Soon after, in 2020, the US removed territorial limitations in the Binational Science Foundation, Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation and Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund agreements with Israel. All three had large endowments providing grants to American and Israeli academics and companies for research and technology. The US and Israel also signed a new science and technology agreement at the time.

The Biden administration hews to what has been the more typical view of Israeli settlement activity in recent decades, and condemns it regularly.

A State Department spokesperson said that its new guidance, circulated to relevant government agencies, stated that engaging in scientific and technological cooperation with Israel “in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after June 5, 1967, and which remain subject to final status negotiations, is inconsistent with US foreign policy.”  

“This guidance is simply reflective of the longstanding US position, reaffirmed by this Administration, that the ultimate disposition of the geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after June 5, 1967 is a final status matter and that we are working towards a negotiated two-state solution in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.  This is essentially reverting through US policy to longstanding pre-2020 geographic limitations on US support for the activities of the binational foundations,” the spokesperson said.

At the same time, the State Department said that the US “strongly values scientific and technological cooperation with Israel, the ‘Start-up Nation,’ and…cooperation with Israel continues.”

The State Department also denied that the timing of the new guidance was punitive following Israel’s announcement of more settlement construction, saying that it “is simply reflective of the longstanding US position.”

Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that the agreements were amended in 2020 “after a thorough review at the highest levels of both governments in order to permit both nations to more freely engage in scientific research and development. Refusing to honor those agreements is wrong, both from a matter of policy and as a matter of contract.”

“Make no mistake, in unilaterally returning to the flawed language of the old agreements, the United States is itself engaging in BDS — it is boycotting Israeli academic institutions based solely upon their postal code,” Friedman said. “Everyone loses here, especially the residents of the affected areas — Israeli and Palestinian.”

US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused the Biden administration of “antisemitic discrimination against Israel.”

“Joe Biden and Biden administration officials are pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel,” Cruz said. “Since day one of their administration they have launched campaigns against our Israeli allies…This new boycott of Israeli Jews is yet another example…The Biden administration defends funding scientific research in Wuhan with the Chinese Communist Party, but they’re discriminating against and banning cooperation with Jews based on where they live.”

Israel has repeatedly entered into similar agreements with the EU, the most recent version of which is called Horizon Europe, which also includes geographic limitations.

Netanyahu condemns Ben-Gvir’s statements

Also on Sunday, Netanyahu responded to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called to “run to the hilltops…and strengthen our control” on Friday, Netanyahu said that “statements calling to seize territory illegally, and the action of seizing territory illegally are not acceptable to me.”

“They undermine the rule of law in Judea and Samaria and they must stop immediately,” the prime minister stated. “Not only will we not back such actions, our government will act firmly against them.”

Calls to build outposts “harm Israel’s vital interests and they must stop immediately,” he said.

Contrary to Ben-Gvir who said that building new outposts is the only way to maintain an Israeli presence in the West Bank, Netanyahu said that “these statements and actions do not strengthen the settlement enterprise; rather, they harm it.”

Ben-Gvir tweeted later that he “appreciates and loves the prime minister, but our governance problem does not begin with settlers in Judea and Samaria, but with leniency towards rioters in the Golan Heights and the lack of enforcement in Rahat. I oppose selective enforcement.

“A right-wing government must realize its vision of settlements in the territory of Judea and Samaria with zero tolerance towards those who threaten to start a war if we don’t grant his requests,” Ben-Gvir added. “Israel cannot give in!”

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